THE PLUMBRIDGES

The story
begins with Edward Plumbridge (1838-1917) who had a chain of fruit shops
in London especially at train stations. In those days strawberries were
at least 24 hours old by the time they were sold in London. Edward
thought if people could only taste fresh strawberries they would no
longer want the older ones (amusing today). In 1874 he bought a piece of
land twelve miles from the City in Farnborough, bordering the High
Street. He sent his second son William (1866-1912) down to manage it.

When William’s
son, also Edward (1892-1982), always known as Nett, was a young boy he used to
get up very early on a summer’s morning and hold a candle in a bottle so
that his mother could see to pick the strawberries.

Two ponies would
then trot the strawberries up to the Plumbridge' London shops for 9am and
another lot went up for twelve noon. This idea seems to have been
successful and Edward is supposed to have been the first person to put
strawberries together with cream!

Edward used to live at 111 Fleet Street and later had Fleetwood
built for himself. This three storey house stood on the corner
of Wellbrook Road, Farnborough Common, near the present hospital
site. It was demolished in the 1960s.

Plan of conveyence Sept
1874, note Brick Field

Edward had one of the first cars in the
neighbourhood (1897) with a chauffeur. Each weekday he would be taken to
Bromley South Station to catch the London train and oversee his business
commitments. Nett used to maintain this car along with his own motor
bike. One day Nett was repairing the car and his father William, who had
never driven a car, said “Let me drive it up to Dad and surprise him!”
He couldn’t control it, cried “Whoa, whoa” and mowed down a row of
poplar trees, thereby damaging the car all over again!

Edward
Plumbridge with his family

William died young, aged 46, when Nett was only 20 and the
farm was then run by Nett on behalf of one of his uncles
although he later inherited it in his own right. He always
called it “the grounds” due to its original description as fruit
grounds. At that time it had fruit, vegetables, chickens,
turkeys and pigs. Also there were two cart horses called Nobby
and Rufus.

Nett worked closely with Edward and learned a lot about the
Plumbridge family history through him. When Edward was young he
was very friendly with the boy who grew up to be Sir Henry
Irving, the famous Victorian actor. In later years, Edward and
his wife, Louisa, were invited to all his first night
performances in London.

Nett went to Dulwich College and one day in about 1908, jumping onto his
homebound train at the last minute, he shared a carriage with Andrew
Carnegie, who had come to open the library in Bromley which he had
funded. Nett told his granddaughter, Celia, the story of Will Scrivens
who worked on the farm many years ago. Apparently he worked like
clockwork and could plant 1,000 cabbages an hour! In 1916 Nett married
Florence Coleby (1892-1984) and Eric (1918- 1997) was born a few years
later. They lived in Wellclose, the house (belonging to Nett’s mother’s
family) on Farnborough Common near where the laundry used to be. This
house was demolished in 2017.

Farnborough Bypass

This is the conveyancing map
dated 1939. But the OS map used shows the line of
Farnborough bypass before it was built, so the underlying map is
from before 1926.

In 1926 construction began of the bypass for Farnborough.
The map above shows that this would effectively split the farm
in two. The bypass opened in 1927.
By the 1960s continually crossing this road with tractors etc.
was becoming very tiresome, and the part of the farm nearest the
village was sold for housing. This is now the Ladycroft Estate.
To replace this more land was purchased on the further side of
the bypass.

Farnborough Bypass 1930

In both wars farming was ,of course, a reserved occupation so neither
Eric or Nett were in the forces. During the Second World War an air raid
shelter was built on the farm under a great hill of excavated earth. As
the farm was near Biggin Hill airfield, Eric could see the battle of
Britain going on in the air above him. The shelter was later found to be
useful for storing apples as it was very cold down there!

In 1945 Eric married Barbara Munday (1921-2015) and Celia was born in
1949. There were also two boys, but unfortunately they were too premature
to survive in the 1950s. Before their daughter’s birth they moved into
Branksome Cottage which was a family house next to Fleetwood and is also
no longer standing. Celia remembers playing down at the farm and mid-
morning sandwiches with everyone sat in a circle in the barn, which can
still be seen on the Farnborough by-pass.

The Barn

Selling fruit and vegetables 1960s

There were now no more pigs or horses. She recalls Nett and
Eric busy in the fields and Flo helping in “the wagon” - the fruit and
vegetable stall. Lots of people came to buy produce in the 1950s, 60s
and 70s. Fruit was in demand for bottling and jam making (freezers were
rare in those days) Also people liked to buy fruit, especially
strawberries and raspberries, for a day out at the coast as the farm was
on the A21 London to Hastings road. As time passed Eric took on more
responsibility although even in later years, Nett, now living in
Hastings, still liked to have a look round on his weekly visits to
Farnborough!

By the start of the 1980s the fruit trade was changing dramatically.
”Pick your own”, supermarkets and freezers altered everything. Eric, at
over 60, was probably too old to adapt. Celia was the only surviving
child, at the time childless after seven years of marriage, living and
teaching in Somerset, thus unlikely to take over the farm. So in 1983,
after Nett had died and with, it is believed, his blessing, most of the
farm was sold. (It is now the Keniston Estate and one road, nearest the
A21, is called Brickfield Farm Gardens). It was sad - the end of four
generations of the Plumbridge family in Farnborough.

Fifteen family members are buried in St. Giles’ churchyard in Farnborough,
however they worshipped at Bromley Common Baptist Church. There
are four separate graves. The photo shows the two most
elaborate, located side by side by the footpath near the gate
that leads to open fields. The monument shown on the right
was newly erected on the occasion of the most recent burial,
that of Barbara Plumbridge in 2015.

Bromley Common Baptist Church was founded by Nett’s maternal
grandfather, Mr. Thomas Nettleton. In fact three of his daughters
married three Plumbridge brothers - hence Nett’s nickname as his mother
Mary was one of that family and his name was actually Edward, William
Nettleton Plumbridge!
Celia Wojcik (nee Plumbridge) 2017

Plumbridge Cottages

The farm may now be gone, but the name Plumbridge lives on, in
the guise of Plumbridge Cottage, situated in Tye Lane in
Farnborough Village.

Tye Lane is an ancient track leading away from the village in a
south westerly direction onto open fields. However the house that
now bears the name is a recent addition - it does not appear on
either of the maps on this page and is thought to be post-war.

The land on which the house is located was not formerly owned
by the family.

Dame School

On both of the maps on this page a building is shown in the
field opposite the church, on the site of the modern primary
school. On the earlier map this is labelled 'School'. This
was a dame school,

A dame school was an early form of a private elementary school
in England and other English-speaking countries. They were usually
taught by women and were often located in the home of the teacher.